Well I guess if nothing else, these responses (presumably from live human beings) just debunked our theory that having real staff people going through the books will do any good. They apparently don't even know that (1) Amazon only supports a few specific languages, (2) that multiple books with the same book cover is a glaring sign that something is amisss, (3) that the interior is showing the same book content in mulitiple uploaded books, (4) that even if the author is indeed Russian or whatever, the author names are clearly gaboodiegook, as are the titles and the "blurbs".

It is hopeless.

And remember I've posted up her interaction two ways with two different service reps. Both didn't seem alarmed by the books breaking TOS or being just simply junk. So this tells us, most likely, they don't have any direction or template to deal with this. Therefore, if Amazon are not actively on alert for these types of scams, then it is very low, low, low on their priority list.

Humans will only work if they are trained properly.

We can spot these scammers a mile away because we have a vested interest. I repeat my point, there is no 'will' on Amazon's part to do anything. We are the only ones who can do something and that is support other retailers. Although I haven't done that yet, it seems the only way.

On another note, I do find the interactions with my moderator hilarious. She's a New Yorker and has a great sense of outrage and humor.

I was searching for categories for my WIPs yesterday and happened upon Genre Fiction --> Political --> New Release. Check these out. They don't even bother with title, author, name anymore, and content is all mumble-jumble. The book "usmiisusiv" by Oduvanck Cvetilov has 2967 pages. Oduvanck Cvetilov is a prolific author with 10+ books of the same kind in his backlog. (See? Who says an author can't publish a book a month? Or a book a week? Heck, he probably publishes a book an hour.) All his books use the same cover. (Good idea! Great for branding and saves a lot of $$. Why didn't I think of that?)

But author Jaratik Garbichnikin, author of "yaormuvuad" does him one better. "yaormuvuad" doesn't even have a book cover. "yaormuvuad" is an epic novel that is 4156 pages long. Here's the riveting blurb:

yaormuvuad

I wanted to Look Inside but unfortunately there's no such option without the cover. I guess we'll just have to assume it's a masterpiece.

I don't understand why they would do this. WHO in their right mind is going to click on that stuff and read it?

I don't understand why they would do this. WHO in their right mind is going to click on that stuff and read it?

Scammers in their right mind would do it. Nobody buys it. They just run some page reads through it every now and then. These are very low ranking, so I'd say they do it randomly to stay under the radar. Mind you, you don't have to do much to stay under Amazon's radar. Reporting them does zero.

I don't understand why they would do this. WHO in their right mind is going to click on that stuff and read it?

Computers. Computers are the ones clicking on that stuff and reading it. Here's a great article from a few years back about how big scamming KU is and how scammers are taking millions from the pot. It's nothing but computers scrolling through the pages:

Computers. Computers are the ones clicking on that stuff and reading it. Here's a great article from a few years back about how big scamming KU is and how scammers are taking millions from the pot. It's nothing but computers scrolling through the pages:

Sorry six pages is a lot to read - but from the OP, Jake Tapper is one of the authors whose rank is being pushed down by bots. Anyone send him some screen shots? Maybe this is one way to get real notice? If not by him saying something, by him pushing it down to an arts and entertainment junior?

Sorry six pages is a lot to read - but from the OP, Jake Tapper is one of the authors whose rank is being pushed down by bots. Anyone send him some screen shots? Maybe this is one way to get real notice? If not by him saying something, by him pushing it down to an arts and entertainment junior?

Ooh, good catch. Yeah, contact Jake Tapper and he can put an investigative team on the matter. A few blistering pieces on the national news might get some action going.

True! In that case, maybe we could ask someone with "Russian ties" to look into it. Hmm, I wonder who we can find with those qualifications??

I have no Russian ties (I assume you mean to the mafia), but it is my native language. Can someone please post a link to one or more of these little gems? They don't show when I type either the so-called title or the so-called author's so-called name. Perhaps that's because I'm in Canada and somehow coddled in a nebula of safety.

I have no Russian ties (I assume you mean to the mafia), but it is my native language. Can someone please post a link to one or more of these little gems? They don't show when I type either the so-called title or the so-called author's so-called name. Perhaps that's because I'm in Canada and somehow coddled in a nebula of safety.

I followed Diana's links and they all lead to one and the same Look Inside: a disorderly medley of Alexander Pushkin's poems, novel snippets, and editor's preface to his collected works. The names and titles the OP cites aren't showing up, or not showing up any longer, either on Amazon.com or on Amazon.ca Weird, and very unpleasant. I wish they'd "chosen" someone other than Russia's greatest poet to pad out their spam files.

It may periodically inconvenience some authors who are prolific writers, but Amazon should allow an author to publish no more than one book per month. Publishing more than one book a month should require pre-authorization from Amazon, and hopefully trigger a manual inspection of the content of the book. This won't necessarily stop scammers from publishing, but it should limit their influence on rankings and hopefully make them easier to identify since they'll be the authors publishing 12 books a year. Of course scammers would adapt and open new author accounts to make up for the loss in volume, but Amazon should be able to identify any connection between new accounts, and tax and account information used in banned accounts to prevent scammers from publishing in the first place, or at the very least, lessen their impact on rankings and their ability to claim undeserved revenue as a top seller.

Use Link-Maker to include Amazon links (pictures or text) in your post!

KBoards is a discussion board for owners of Kindles, readers of Kindle ebooks, and writers of Kindle ebooks.
www.kboards.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Apart from its participation in the Associates Program, www.kboards.com is not affiliated with Amazon or Kindle in any other way. Amazon, Kindle and the Amazon and Kindle logos are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
(c) 2007 - 2015 KBoards. All Rights Reserved. | privacy policy | registration agreement | email KBoards

Promote your author service
Do you offer an author service (such as editing, cover design, formatting, publicity, translation, etc.)? Get visibility with one of the web's liveliest communities of authors, with a KBoards banner ad linked to your service.